Who went out whoring through Colorado in myriad stolen night-cars, N.C.,

Meaning

Neal Cassady (“N.C.”) was a major influence on the Beat and Psychedelic movements even though his published corpus is scant. In reality, Cassady served the role of figurehead; an archetype rather than an artist.

Cassady’s mother died when he was a child, and his father was an alcoholic. Neal was often left with friends which lead to a wayward youth defined by myriad arrests for petty crimes. He was arrested for car theft when he was 14, for shoplifting and car theft when he was 15, and for car theft and fencing when he was 16. His shaky formative years contributed significantly to Cassady’s “rough around the edges” appeal that endeared him to Kerouac and Ginsberg.

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